“Hello pencils, hello books, hello teacher’s dirty looks. Yes, school is back in session. And students are no doubt grumbling about the end of the carefree summer. But in some parts of the world, there are kids who don’t get a chance to complain about what a drag it is to go back to school. Because they really want to go to school … only they’re not able. A lot of them are girls. The theory has been that sometimes parents simply don’t value an education for their daughters. Maybe the parents figure the girls will go on to marry and leave the family fold, so they are unlikely to give any money back to Mom and Dad. Or maybe the parents just want their daughters home to do chores. How do you fight the attitude? In Zimbabwe a couple of decades ago, well-meaning aid groups were putting up posters and running TV ads encouraging parents (many of whom did not even own TVs) to send their daughters to school, as if all they needed was a little friendly persuasion.”(more)

“Considering the importance of the educational process, parents, schools, students and indeed the Government should always review and reflect on this system to evaluate if it is producing the desired results.”(more)

“It is never too late for girls to cultivate the science principles in their minds. It helps to train the mind and avoid using calculators in order to develop the capacity to think beyond the basics.”(more)

“Learning Chinese as a second or third language has been a global trend in the last few years. In Africa, the rapid increase of Chinese investments and trade (China is currently the continent’s biggest trading partner) has spurred the trend.”(more)